


when the sun goes down

by kapbird



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28164918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kapbird/pseuds/kapbird
Summary: Ky-X has never been the most mainstream Guardian. With a reset number scrubbed from her hardware and a healthy distrust of the Vanguard, she's struggled to get along with most of her fellows. But it turns out that when you're friends with people like the Young Wolf and the Hero of the Red War, you get to meet some interesting people.
Relationships: Female Guardian/The Crow (Destiny)
Kudos: 12





	when the sun goes down

**Author's Note:**

> birthday present for my friend ruth! belated good wishes and many happy returns <3

Ky knows she’s doomed when Crow starts getting cheeky with her.

It happens during one of her earliest Wrathborn hunts, as they winnow down the Servitor to its last reserves of energy. As it warps its way into the distance, Clove tilts their fins in something approximating a frown. “Is it running away?” they ask.

“That depends on whether or not you can stop it, Old Light,” comes Crow’s smug reply, smooth and low in his chest, and Ky grins.

“I most certainly think we can,” Clove says primly, and Ky, whose voice does nothing to mask her expression, adds, “Watch and learn, pretty boy.”

There’s a beat, and then Clove cuts the comm channel as Ky smacks a palm to the faceplate of her helmet.

“Wow,” Clove says, and she glares at them.

“Don’t.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!”

“Still. Don’t even start.”

“Look, there’s no use getting mad at _me_ about him being hot—”

“I _don’t_ think he’s hot,” Ky grumbles as Clove calls down her Sparrow. Clove gives her a dry look. “I _don’t_ ,” she adds hotly.

Clove ruffles their fins in an eyeroll. “We have a whole neural symbiosis,” they say as they demat into her. “And besides, maybe _I_ think he’s hot.”

Ky huffs as she jets off, and resolves not to think very hard about how often her Ghost is right.

* * *

She starts getting flashier during the hunts. She almost doesn’t notice, except that she gets caught in a rough spot two or three times trying to show off, and has to throw down an emergency super to prevent herself from getting swarmed. Some of her friends give her the side eye for her newfound flashiness, but the thing is Crow _is_ impressed, and it’s hard to fight the warm feeling that settles in her chest when he does show his admiration. He’s a lot like her, in that he hides his any display of positive feeling behind a layer of wry detachment, but Glint does for him what Clove does for her and opens him up in ways he’s not expecting. Clove informs her that she’s a hypocrite: “Oh, so when _Glint_ does it it’s charming, but when I show _Crow_ what _you’re_ feeling, you get to get all huffy...”

Ky crosses her arms and tries not to huff too hard, because she _really_ doesn’t like proving them right.

But their connection grows in spite of her denial. She can’t help but trust him; he’s earnest and sweet and good-humored, and he want so badly to _help_ people: Human, Eliksni, whoever. He even expresses a kind of sad sympathy for the Hive, and it pierces straight through to whatever Exo machinery she has in place of a heart.

So when he reaches out for her one day in his tiny station in the back of the Spider’s hideout — when his fingers brush against her wrist before he yanks his hand back, and her breath catches in spite of herself — she knows she’ll help him before he finishes asking the question.

It’s bad, because when she finds his room, and he starts to tell her about his life, about how he’s had to hide his face, when he starts letting the shame slip through — that’s when her heart really breaks for him.

* * *

And then they have it. Hawkmoon is in her hands. Ky thinks this is silly, insists that it should be his, but when she offers it to him he just closes her hands over it. It’s _very_ unfair, because while she’s busy being distracted by the sensation of Crow’s fingers on her own, she isn’t coming up with an argument as to why _he_ should keep it.

“Besides,” he jokes, when she finally relents. “This way the Spider can’t get his hands on it.”

She is careful enough to not let her face fall too much at that. He seems to notice, because the next thing he says is, “Want to celebrate?”

So they wind up by a fire drinking wine from the bottle. There’s no real consensus on whether Exos can get drunk, but Ky thinks she’s buzzed off of excitement as she watches Crow gesture excitedly.

“And the _sword_ ,” he says, flushed. “You wield that sword with more fierceness than I’ve ever seen before.”

Ky laughs at that. “I don’t know about that,” she says, sitting on a rock and watching his performance. “I’m just reckless.”

“Aggressive.” Crow nods approvingly. “You need to be. Being too cautious with a sword is a death sentence. It’s my worst habit out there.”

“Oh, there’s no way you’re a worse swordfighter than me.” Ky stands. “I blow myself up _so_ much because I just get stuck in close with a sword and something’s lobbing explosives at me.”

Crow stares at Ky disbelievingly, and she huffs. “Alright, fine. Want proof? Let’s go a round, right now.”

Crow blinks. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Ky snickers at that. “Why?” she asks, giggling. “What’s the worst that could happen? We die?”

Crow does laugh at that, and against Glint’s better judgment and with Clove’s too-enthusiastic encouragement, they transmat a pair of swords from their ships and take up stances, circling each other around the fire.

Ky eyes him up and down as they gauge distances with each other. Crow’s sword is Reefmade, something he must’ve grabbed on his way out of the Dreaming City when he first woke up. Ky, on the other hand, is wielding a massive slashing weapon, one of the Pyramid-blades that popped out of the Drifter’s machine before the fleet swallowed Io. Her strikes are heavier, and demand more commitment; Crow can dance with much more agility than she can.

Still, she reflects as she hefts the blade, there’s no point in taking it easy on him.

They go a few exchanges back and forth; she’ll press him to the edge of the circle of firelight before he’ll dance sideways and glide back to the center, and then she’ll chase him down again and try to pin him so she can get a clean hit in. He plays this trick on her three times before she catches on, but when she does she makes an indignant noise at the grin on his face. In one of their exchanges he slides _under_ her blade, which is a kind of recklessness she thinks her newfound protege does _not_ deserve a reward for.

So the next time she has him up against the edge of the light, she feints, and as he ducks out of the way of the feint, she backswings and catches his blade against her own. She sees realization wash over his face and grins wickedly as she presses his blade. He moves to deflect their locked weapons, and she pushes up and around, twisting and twisting—

But he does something clever, then. As she makes to disarm him of the blade, he gives at just the right time, letting his blade go and sliding his arm between hers, and his leg is behind hers already — when did he do that? — to sweep her to the ground. She yelps and hooks her leg around his to stabilize herself, but she’s nearly his exact height and it’s clear he wasn’t prepared for this, and he goes tumbling down on top of her.

Silence, as she hears her sword clatter down somewhere behind her head, as she listens to the crackle of the fire a few feet away and stares into Crow’s gold eyes, the firelight washing over one side of his face. He looks at her with — he looks at her like he’s not sure he’s allowed to, like he’s not sure _what_ to do here.

Ky lets out a soft huff of laughter — a nervous, unsure thing, the same as the smile she shows him. “Fancy meeting you here,” she jokes.

“...yeah,” Crow says, slow and hesitant. “Fancy that.”

He moves to stand up, but in a moment of boldness Ky catches him by the wrist before he can rise.

“Crow,” she says softly, and tugs him down gently. He follows, slow and cautious as she continues. 

“I...” Ky starts helplessly, and before she can flounder too much for words she puts a palm on his cheek as he leans over, leans her face in close.

“Can I?” she exhales, and in the dark, the Crow nods.

It isn’t an easy or obvious thing to figure out to kiss an Exo, which is why she’s impressed at how quickly he picks up on the subtleties of it. He’s a _good_ kisser, too, and she hums appreciatively into his mouth as he laces his fingers with hers and brushes his other hand across her hip. She likes a boy who knows what to do with his hands.

When he draws back, it’s with an expression of near-reverence on his face, and Ky is so stunned she can’t help but grin, Exolights flushed bright with embarrassed joy.

“Is this a dream?” he asks, and Ky _giggles_ at that.

“I hope not,” she says, grinning up at him. “Or at least I hope I dream it again.”

He laughs at that, and then smiles down at her, fingers playing across her hip.

“I admire you,” he says, with the air of a confession. “I have for a while. You’re...so _sure_ of yourself, even when it seems like other Guardians don’t approve.” His expression turns wistful. “I suppose I envy that.”

“We’ll get you there,” Ky promises. “I mean, look, I barely believe in the sacred message of the Traveler or whatever, but it speaks to _you_ now, so come on, what do you need anyone else’s opinion for?” She tugs at his hand, laces his fingers with hers. “I don’t really fuck with the Guardian establishment that much anyway. You don’t need ‘em.”

He smiles at her, a little sad. “It’s a nice dream,” he admits. “I don’t know that I believe it. It seems like even a Guardian can’t get by in this system without signing up to fight for power or another. Better the Vanguard than the Spider.”

“Yeah." Ky inhales unnecessarily. “I need to talk to my clan about that. Glint...you deserve better. Both of you.”

Crow makes an appreciative noise, low in his throat. “I’m getting better,” he says, and Ky knows how this line is going to go and she’s already trying to roll her eyes but the instant the words “I’m getting you” leave his mouth her Exolights flush as bright as can be.

“Shut up and kiss me,” she grumbles, and he laughs.


End file.
